Dear A.I.G., I Quit! — The following is a letter sent on Tuesday by Jake DeSantis, an executive vice president of the American International Group's financial products unit, to Edward M. Liddy, the chief executive of A.I.G. — DEAR Mr. Liddy, — It is with deep regret that I submit …

FIRST THOUGHTS: THE OBAMA OCEAN-LINER — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro — *** The Obama ocean-liner: More than anything else, Obama's news conference last night resembled a campaign TV ad — one in which the serious candidate talks directly to the camera …

Resigned — This resignation letter from an AIG exec is worth reading: … I wonder if Senator Grassley (Republican, of course) is pleased that AIG honchos are now doing as instructed and falling on their swords. As I said a few days ago, if you own even modest assets (a small house …

Jindal defends those who want Obama to fail — WASHINGTON (CNN) — It's OK for Republicans to want President Obama to fail if they think he's jeopardizing the country, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told members of his political party Tuesday night. — Jindal described the premise of the question …

Geithner ‘open’ to China proposal — Geithner, at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. is “open” to a headline-grabbing proposal by the governor of the China's central bank, which was widely reported as being a call for a new global currency to replace the dollar …

Democrats Take Knife To Obama's Budget — Key Democratic leaders were performing major surgery yesterday on President Obama's first budget plan in an effort to bring skyrocketing annual deficits under control, while preserving the option of enacting some of the president's most significant and costly domestic priorities.

E.U. President Calls U.S. Stimulus the ‘Way to Hell’ — BRUSSELS — Transatlantic tension over the handling of the global economic crisis intensified on Wednesday when the prime minister of the Czech Republic, which holds the European Union presidency, described the U. S. stimulus measures as the “way to hell.”

Barack Obama's delivery of no news is quite smooth — Tuesday morning The Ticket examined the White House's current political strategy and asked the question of who would show up at Barack Obama's second nationally televised news conference that evening: the president or the senator?

‘Global War On Terror’ Is Given New Name — The Obama administration appears to be backing away from the phrase “global war on terror,” a signature rhetorical legacy of its predecessor. — In a memo e-mailed this week to Pentagon staff members, the Defense Department's office of security review noted that …

Transcript: President Obama's Press Conference — [*] OBAMA: Hello, everybody. Please have a seat. — Good evening. Now, before I take questions from the correspondents, I want to give everyone who's watching tonight an update on the steps we're taking to move this economy from recession to recovery …

Is it back to the Fifties? — “My mother is 75,” said Jon Stewart, the US late-night comedian, at the end of his already famous interview with Jim Cramer, the television stock market pundit. “And she bought into the idea that long-term investing is the way to go. And guess what?”

Sacrifice — Apparently Chuck Todd asked President Obama why he isn't asking people to “sacrifice” more amidst the recession. — The standard progressive answer to this starts by observing that the hundreds of thousands of people who are losing their jobs each week are, presumably, sacrificing.

Obama's Approach to Protecting ‘State Secrets’ at Issue — Like Predecessor, New Justice Dept. Claiming Privilege — Civil liberties advocates are accusing the Obama administration of forsaking campaign rhetoric and adopting the same expansive arguments that his predecessor used to cloak …

FM 3-XX: Revolutionary Operations — I've been looking over the Army's new manual for stability operations, which the University of Michigan just reprinted with an all-star lineup of introductions by Michele Flournoy, Shawn Brimley, and Janine Davidson. — I'm all for the idea.

Netanyahu Promises Peace Effort — JERUSALEM — Israel's prime minister-designate, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Wednesday that the coalition he is forming would be a “partner for peace,” offering a pledge that seemed designed to reshape his reputation as a foe of the peace process with the Palestinians.

Top Hedge Fund Managers Do Well in a Down Year — The financial crisis may have turned much of Wall Street's wealth into dross, but a select group of hedge fund managers has managed to maintain a golden touch that might make King Midas blush. — As major markets and economies careened downward last year …

M.T.A. Increases Fares and Cuts Services — The board of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority voted Wednesday morning to enact a series of fare hikes and service cutbacks needed to keep the transit system from going broke. — The vote was broken largely into three parts: fare hikes, toll increases and service cutbacks.

ROMNEY: Cautionary tale of card check — ANALYSIS/OPINION: — In 2006, my last year as governor of Massachusetts, I vetoed a card-check bill that allowed public workers to organize if a majority signed union authorization cards as opposed to casting a traditional secret ballot.

“Enervating” — The president was “not...fiery and inspirational,” write Peter Baker and Adam Nagourney in the morning NYT. “Placid and unsmiling, he was the professor in chief, offering familiar arguments in long paragraphs — often introduced with the phrase, ‘as I said before’ …

AP IMPACT: It's fear that keeps Baghdad's peace — BAGHDAD - The streets are calmer now. The fighting between Shiites and Sunnis has largely ceased. But this is not a sign of normalcy in the Iraqi capital. It's fear that keeps the peace. — Only an estimated 16 percent …

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